Bangladesh -build-new-international-airport: The Bangabandhu International Airport

Bangladesh -build-new-international-airport: The Bangabandhu International Airport
The Bangabandhu International Airport :With the country?s growing air trafficBangladesh announced plans on Monday to build a seven-billion-US-dollar international airport to deal , an official said on Monday.
The Bangabandhu International Airport will be built more than 100 kilometres (60 miles) north of the capital, Dhaka, on a 6,000-acre (2,430-hectare) site, Civil Aviation Authority chief Shakeb Khan Majlish told media
?We have done a pre-feasibility study of the airport. It will be equal to the size of (Bangkok?s) Suvarnabhumi airport, with two runways,? said Majlish, who put the cost at 500 billion taka (seven billion US dollars).

Opened in September 2006, Suvarnabhumi airport has a capacity of 45 million passengers a year, 76 flights an hour and three million tons of cargo annually. The Bangladesh cabinet gave the go-ahead to the new airport as the existing Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport formerly known as Zia International Airport cannot be expanded due to lack of land, Majlish said.

The civil aviation chief said the new airport would be essential in five to six years? time, with the country?s air traffic growing rapidly. The government plans to hire foreign consultants for the project later this year and construction will begin in 2011, he added.

Detail states :
The government has drawn up a plan to construct the first phase of the proposed Tk 50,000 crore Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib International Airport in next five years under build-own-operate-transfer (BOOT) basis.

As part of the plan Civil Aviation Authority, Bangladesh (CAAB) conducted a feasibility study over the last three months where they identified three possible sites for the airport.

Of the three, two are in Mymensingh and one is in Tangail.

An inter-ministerial meeting the day before yesterday at the civil aviation and tourism ministry preferred the site at Trishal in Mymensingh.

Civil Aviation and Tourism Secretary Shafique Alam Mehdi said the site at Trishal, 97 kilometres off the capital, would be given the top priority as it has about 1200 acres of government land in place.

CAAB handed over its feasibility study report to the ministry. The ministry will soon send a summary of it to the prime minister for her consent.

?Soon after the prime minister’s consent we will appoint consultants and conduct the technical feasibility study within this year,? Shafique added.

According to the primary plan the airport will be established on about 6000 acres of land with three 9000 feet runways and all other modern facilities like Dubai or Singapore Airports.

An elevated expressway has also been planned under the project to link the airport with Dhaka.

Renowned airport builders will provide the fund for the project.

In the first phase a dual terminal and a runway will be constructed. It will also include a parking bay to accommodate 75 aircraft, support facilities and structures including a large maintenance hangar, a fire station and workshop.

Two more passenger terminals and runways are expected to be completed by 2020, Shafique said.

Ministry sources said reputable airport building agencies like Italian-Thai Development Corporation, Murray and Roberts of South Africa, Penta Ocean Construction and Obayashi Corporation have informally communicated with the ministry.

The civil aviation secretary said the airport would be the connecting link between the emerging and developed economies in the East and West.

?Bangladesh needs a gateway to East Asian and Middle Eastern and Western countries as air cargo transportation is growing day by day,? he said.

Shahjalal International Airport doesn’t have adequate space and facilities to fulfil the demand,? Shafique said.

The airport has been planned in a way so that it can meet the demand of next hundred years, the official added.

A high official of the ministry said Shahajalal Airport was built when country’s external trade was not more than $1 billion, which has now crossed $35 billion a year.

According to the CAAB statistics 1.5 lakh metric tonnes of freight have been transported through Shahjalal Airport in 2009 with a 20 percent growth annually